ideas to Christians at all inclined to a worldly policy. The writers of the New Testament had, in tact, repeat- edly used the words mystery and mysteries, but never in connection with either baptism, the Lord's supper, or anj^ Christian ceremony. They had spoken of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, the mystery of faith, the mystery of godliness, and also of the Gospel as "the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest."
II. Mull ijilicat ion of the iHacrdmeiils.— When from such obviously appropriate uses the term mystery was, in ecclesiastical language, so far perverted as to be made almost exclusively to represent Christian cere- monies, a wide door was opened for the ingress of erro- neous opinions and practice. The very term suggested secrecy where publicity was designed. It obviously prompted the artificial rules of the clisciplina arcam (q. v.), and thus strongly encouraged ceremonial in- stead of spiritual conversion. It also stimulated the inventiveness of ecclesiastics in the multiplication of so-called sacraments. It gave comitenance to priest- ly pretensions on the part of Christian ministers, and encouraged the imitation of Jewish and pagan rites. Combined with other influences of like nature, it con- tributed to that great perversion of the sacrament of the Lord's supper by which it came to be regarded as a propitiatory sacrifice — a parent error, from which the mystical ceremonies and the doctrine of transubstantia- tion were logical outgrowths. Errors also arose from a loose application of the word sacramentitm. As that term involved the generic idea of sacredness, so it came to be applied to various other usages that sprang up in the Church, with the tendency to attribute to them an importance and sanctity corresponding to those of the sacraments proper. For successive centuries the nuin- ber of observances called, in this loose sense, sacraments was more or less varied and indefinite ; one writer (Da- mian) enumerated twelve. But by degrees, the sacred lumiber seven came to be adopted as the limit, yet not always in application to the same ceremonies or in the same order. The present enumeration of the Koman Church is credited to the schoolman Peter Lombard (d. 1164), although for at least three centuries later more or less controversy was maintained among the school- men as to the number and order of the sacraments. It was the General Council of Florence in 1439 that, fol- lowing Peter l^ombard and Thomas Aquinas, first as- sumed to define authoritatively tlie mmiber as subse- quently maintained by the Church of Kome. The def- inition or limitation then decreed was promulgated in a synodal epistle from pope Eugenius to the Armenians in 1442. The language of the decree is full and explic- it, not only as to the number, but also as to the doctrine of the sacraments. It says :
"The sacninients of the new law are seven — namely, baptism, contiiniation, the encharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony — which differ much from the sacraments of the old law: for those do not cause grace, but represent it as only to be driven thvoufih the passion of Christ : but the sacraments of the new law contain grace, and confer it on those who worthily re- ceive them. The first five are ordained for the spiritual perfection of each man in himself; the la-l two, for iho •lovernment and mnltiplication of the whole Church. . . . All these sacraments are perfected in three ways — name- ly, by things as to the material, by words as to the form, and by the person of the administrator who confers the sacrament with the intention of doing what the Chur' h does— of which, if any be wanting, the sacrament is not perfected. Among these sacraments there are three — baptism, confirmation, and orders— which impress indel- ibly on the soul a character: that is, a certain spiritual sign, distin<rinshiii£c him from others. Hence they are not repeated on the same person. But the other four do not impress a character, and admit of reiteiatiou."
The sacramental theor}' of the Koman Catholic Church has rarely, if ever, been better stated. As thus formu- lated, it was an ingenious and authoritative digest of views that had been developed during long centuries in which tradition and superstitious inventiveness had usurped the supreme control in matters of religion.
SACRAMENT
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SACRAMENT
During that period the living oracles were silent, and nearly all tlie prevailing induences nnited to enhance the prerogatives of the clergy by attaching magical or supernatural influence to their supposed priestly func- tions. Baptism, loaded down with accumulated cere- monies, became the essential agency of regeneration ; absolution from sin was given or withheld at the option of a priest; while extreme unction was regarded as an important, if not an essential passport to usher a dying person into the presence of GimX. But it was the Lord's supper in which all that was most solemn and mysteri- ous was concentrated. 'J'hat rite had become the holy of holies in the Christianity then prevalent. In it the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ was believed to be se- cured as often as the priest performed the act of conse- cration ; but the manner of that presence was for a long time undiscussed, being neither detined by canon, agi- tated before council, nor detertnined by pope. " During all those centuries no language was thought too strong to express the overpowering awe and reverence of the worshippers. The oratory of the pidpit and the horta- tory treatise had indulged freely in the boldest images; the innate poetry of the faith had worked those images into realities." A specimen of the oratorical hyperbole employed in reference to this subject may be taken from Chrysostom, written in his treatise on the priesthood, about A.D. 3IS0: "The priestly office is discharged upon earth, but holds the rank of heavenly things, and very rightly so. . . . For when you behold the Lord sacri- ficed and prostrate, and the priest standing over the sacrifice, and praying, and all stained with that precious blood, do you then suppose you are among men and standing upon earth? Are j'ou not immediately trans- ported to heaven? . . . Oh, the marvel! Oh, the love of God to man! He who sits with the Father on high is at that moment held in the hands of all, and gives himself to those who are willing to embrace and to re- ceive him 1"